- Joshua Fisher
Joshua Fisher (1707 –
February 1 ,1783 ) was a prominent Philadelphiamerchant involved intransatlantic trade andmapmaking as applied tonautical chart s. He made the firstnautical chart of theDelaware River andDelaware Bay , and established the firstmerchant packet line betweenLondon andPhiladelphia .Early years
Fisher was born in
Sussex County, Delaware , into aQuaker familywith historic roots, growing up inLewes, Delaware . His father, Thomas Fisher(1669-1713) and mother, Margery Maud (1671-1770) were bothQuakers as werehis grandparents. His grandfather, John Fisher came to America on board the"Welcome" withWilliam Penn . Fisher was enterprising, and taught himselfmathematics andmechanics . He married (July 27, 1733) a neighbor'sdaughter, Sarah Rowland, the granddaughter of Mary Harworth, an eloquentFriends minister who had also arrived on the "Welcome".Establishing a Business
Fisher settled in
Lewes, Delaware , nearCape Henlopen , regularly attendingQuaker Meeting . He learned to makehat s from animal skins, started a hat-making business, and established an active trade with the local Indians in pelts ofbeaver and other small animals. He developed atransatlantic trade and sold many pelts to customers inEngland . In Lewes he opened a largeinn andcountry store , which was frequented by many pilots and ship captains because Lewes was the first port at the mouth ofDelaware Bay and a good location to learn about the channel toPhiladelphia . Fisher gave the pilots advice about how to navigateDelaware Bay , which was notorious for its many shoals. He was appointed byThomas Penn to be Deputy Surveyor General ofDelaware .Family Farm
Fisher's father Thomas owned a convert|300|acre|km2|sing=on property that included a farm, and another convert|500|acre|km2|sing=onproperty at Cool Spring, west of Lewes, that included a farm house constructedin the Dutch style with a
gambrel roof . When his father died in 1713, Fisher inherited the properties, ran them profitably for two decades, and in 1736 sold the Cool Spring property to Rev. James Martin, a pastor of nearbyPresbyterian churches, whose descendants held the property for two centuries. In 1980, the Fisher-Martin house was moved to downtown Lewes where it currently holds theChamber of Commerce information center.Move to
Philadelphia In 1746, Fisher sold his store and house in Lewes and moved with hiswife and six children to
Philadelphia , at first settling in a house on the north side ofWalnut St above Front St. Later he built a houseat 110 S. Front St and moved his family there. He had ownedslaves on the family farm outside of Lewes and sold them before the move, but later repurchased them and gave them and their descendants their freedom. Fisher also purchased a country estate north of the city overlooking theSchuylkill River from the east, and built a house there in 1753 called "The Cliffs ", after his family's ancestral home inYorkshire, England . The family often stayed at theCliffs in the summer, enjoying the nearby river.Mercantile Business
Fisher built a warehouse in downtown
Philadelphia at the back of the lot at110 S. Front St where his house stood,and established there a prosperous mercantile business, "Joshua Fisher & Sons"(1762-1783), selling virtually every type of object. Soon after, Fisher establishedthe first packet line of ships to sail regularly betweenPhiladelphia andLondon , two of the largest cities in theBritish Empire . Customers were ableto order items such asporcelain ,silverware ,brass pulls for dressers,and every other imaginable type of merchandise from a detailed catalog, and receivetheir goods within weeks. The business did not advertise much in the local newspapersbecause it was mainly a wholesale supplier to retail stores. Fisher's descendantsstill possess well-built Windsor chairs from the packet line.Map of
Delaware Bay Fisher continued his interest in the navigation of
Delaware Bay , and at nightstudied navigation. He was encouraged in this endeavor by the pilots and ship captainswho continued to need accurate information about the shoals and channels ofDelaware Bay . Over the course of 20 years Fisher developed a detailed mapof Delaware Bay with help from his brother-in-law, Samuel Rowland, and teacher ThomasGodfrey. The chart was very accurate for the day, showing observations of theexactlatitude andlongitude , andsoundings , informationaboutharbors , stream inlets,shoals , and ship channels. The chartwas engraved by James Turner, funded by a group of local merchants and ship owners, andprinted in 1756 in Philadelphia by printer John Davis.Fisher was ordered not to publish the map by the
Governor ,Robert Hunter Morris ,because a war appeared likely withFrance and he was concerned that the map mightfall into enemy hands. Fisher sent out copies of the map anyway and explainedthat the map did not show the full way to Philadelphia, and the complexityof thenavigation to Philadelphia would deter the enemy. The map was re-engravedinPhiladelphia in 1775, duplicated and published inLondon in 1776,and widely sold and distributed. It remained the standard map for navigation toPhiladelphia for almost a century.Revolutionary War and Family
During the Revolution, much of Fisher's inventory ofmerchandise was commandeered by the military to support the revolutionarycause, but Fisher was not fully reimbursed for it. In 1779 his son Thomas anda slave worker were taken hostage from Fisher's farm in lower Delaware by the British,and Fisher was obliged to pay a ransom of 100 bullocks. As many
Quakers didduring the Revolution, he maintained a neutral position with respect to the fledglingcountry's conflicts, but he and his family suffered as a consequence. In 1777 Fisher's sons were ordered by the authorities to produce their firm's business recordsbut they refused, and since they wereQuakers they refused to swear anoath of allegiance .As a consequence sons Thomas, Samuel, Meirs were exiled toWinchester, Virginia along with several otherQuakers , and kept under house arrest for a year. Although they were treated somewhat harshly they survived without severe illness, but their brother-in-lawThomas Gilpin and another in the group died. After evacuation of the British, the group of Quakers were eventually pardoned and allowed to return toPhiladelphia by order ofGeorge Washington and the Congress.Fisher's son Samuel continued to show opposition to the revolutionary cause, and in 1779 he and was arrested on the charge of being a
Tory on the basis of a letter he sent to his brother Jabez Maud on a ship unable to land inNew York Harbor . Samuel exacerbated the situation by not recognizing the authority of the court and was sent to jail for 2 years. Fisher was by then too ill to be taken from his home and the charges against him were dropped. Fisher's sons continued the mercantile business and son Samuel continued the packet line to London, capturing business with catalogs of textiles andmanufactured items, and the family continued to be prosperous. Fisher's great-grandson wasJoseph Wharton , a prominentindustrialist who founded theWharton School of Business .References
* Silvio Bedini, "History Corner: Joshua Fisher And His Chart of Delaware Bay, Part 1" Professional Surveyor, April, 1996, Vol 16, No. 3, http://www.profsurv.com/archive.php?issue=2&article=42
* Silvio Bedini, "History Corner: Joshua Fisher And His Chart of Delaware Bay, Part 2" Professional Surveyor, May/June, 1996, Vol 16, No. 3, http://www.profsurv.com/archive.php?issue=3&article=52
* Fisher Family Papers, 1761-1889, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. http://www2.hsp.org/collections/manuscripts/f/fisher2094.htm
* Charles F. Hummel, "Samuel Rowland Fisher's 'Catalogue of English Hardware'", Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 1, (1964), pp. 188-197http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0084-0416(1964)1%3C188%3ASRF%22OE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A
*
Lewes, Delaware Chamber of Commerce brochure for visitors.http://www.leweschamber.com/history.html* Description of Joshua Fisher & Sons in the Franklin papers, http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedNames.jsp?ssn=001-19-5673
* Thomas M. Doerflinger, "A Vigorous Spirit of Enterprise: Merchants and Economic Development in Revolutionary Philadelphia", 1986, UNC Press
* Article in The Evening Bulletin, November 22, 1971, on the plans to convert
the Cliffs to an historic farm.* W. Ross Yates, "Joseph Wharton: Quaker Industrial Pioneer", 1987, Lehigh University Press
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